Tyler Weaver's Blog, page 14

Humanity, Restored

K returns to teaching five days a week today (gets her second dose on Thursday). The Morkie is despondent.

So that thing I said a few days ago but deleted this morning about these being dead? Yeah. Changed my mind. Tried a weekly post at the main site, but forgot how much I hated regular posting with Squarespace. Great service for most things, but the iOS app has become a nigh-unusable, buggy mess: among other things, attempting to edit a published post written in Markdown tranforms the entire post into an unreadable jumble. Not worth the time, prefer making this my blog, so here I am.

Tired, but feeling human today: yesterday was brutal, my post-J&J single dose covid-jab unleashing all sorts of side effects, the aforementioned “muscles feeling like how a metal bat against a metal pole sounds.” Managed to get the day’s run in �����had to, T1D doesn’t appreciate more than one missed run a century (had to miss Saturday AM’s due to jab-time) ��� but it was a lesson in abject, self-inflicted brutality. By evening, however, I was fine. Reasonably certain that I’ve had covid, probably last March �����my full-tilt reaction to the jab makes me think that’s even more likely. Relief over being vaccinated even more palpable now that I’m on the other side of the side effect initiation.

And so the day, the week, begins.

SitRep, 12mar2021

The morning of (early access): re/emergence0002 is now available for newsletter subscribers; next Wednesday, 17 March, for everyone.

Pitches for elsewhere on my mind. Just one problem: I have no ideas to pitch, not even the scintilla of one. I’d love to be published elsewhere again but I see where the aforementioned lack could present a problem.

T-minus one day to Johnson & Johnson jab.

P.S. Thanks for the advice re: my inability to skip.

SitRep, 11mar2021

Waiting, as usual, for The Morkie to decide that she’s ready to come inside; this, after waiting until I had sat down to potentially scribble something (this, in fact) before deciding that she needed to venture out. This is the way.

Awful night of sleep, dreams of some form of brain surgery but that wasn’t the bad part: the bad part was people constantly coming to visit me when all I wanted was to be left alone. Apparently this undetermined procedure didn’t make me more sociable. Go figure.

Efforts being made to improve my handwriting. Working to not connect my block capitals as I’ve done for decades in my bastardized hybrid of cursive and all-caps. Closing the tops of letters, all that. Wouldn’t it be lovely if my handwritten notes were useful five minutes after I wrote them?

The Morkie calls.

SitRep, 10mar2021

Vaccine appointment scheduled. Had the choice between the Moderna two-dose starting this afternoon or the Johnson and Johnson one-dose on Saturday morning. Went with the latter, even though I’ll lose one running day. Judgement was that the one-day loss (instead of trying to schedule two) and potential side-effect (noteworthy that only my wife has had any side effect; in-laws, parents, and grandparents, have had zilch) was worth it for the long-term benefits. With T1D management, a variation of five to fifteen minutes can be transformative.

Continuing afoot with my percussive re-education. Not as structured as I’d like, but I’m getting there. Biggest symbolic change from my formal/conservatory education of decades past: I’m teaching myself traditional grip, having been forced into matched grip for the duration of my musical becoming and ending.

T-minus two days until newsletter-exclusive re/emergence0002 early launch; you can sign up here if so inclined. Available to all next Weds, 17 March.

SitRep, 09mar2021

Wrapped up Rian Hughes’s XX yesterday: still formulating deeper thoughts, not sure if it’ll become a full thing or not but, first impression: undeniably beautiful, undeniably moving, and undeniably overlong �����but it didn’t wear out its welcome (though it did come close a few times.)

Back to writing these in the breakfast interregnum between morning workblocks. By the time those are done, my brain is likewise. Still adjusting back to the all-morning return: the postprandial-dinner chunk of the day, the purposeless or available for the purposes of others can be trying, but I know those moments will increase in rarity over the next few months as yardwork/outdoor projects kick into gear.

In my creative practice, I value repeatability and constancy above all else. Let it become habit; tis the season mornings-only are the sole method by which I can achieve this:

���The wisdom of the journeyman is to work one day at a time and he always said that any job even if it took years was made up out of a day���s work. Nothing more. Nothing less. That was hard for me to learn. I always wanted to be finished. In the concept of a day���s work is rhythm and pace and wholeness.��� - Cormac McCarthy, The Stonemason

Reminding myself: I wrote my first book, 300 pages, in five months, working mornings-only. Back to work.

SitRep, 08mar2021

Mucking about a bit with when I write these. Think I’ll settle on when the day’s work is done (I start at +/-0445). Just a bit of a change, a small one, nothing grand. A useful break between the day’s work for myself and the day’s run, and subsequent availability for others. As I’m fond of saying, AM is mine, PM is yours.

Still nursing the wounds of defeat with the balm of victory: while my niece laid waste to me in MARIO KART, I managed to eke out two victories �����both, however on account of her tactical errors. In one ray of hope, I figured out how to pull off that start-line-boost thing she was doing to break out to the front of the pack; this “discovery” has yet to translate to a personal victory for ShyGuy and myself of any regularity or sustainability. That said, I MARIO KART’ed her in JEOPARDY, finishing with $66K to her $480, in what can only be described as victory’s balm for the burn of my perpetual MARIO KART defeat.

A special morning of following the dog children around with plastic bags, pacing in wait of vet-bound treasures.

SitRep, 07mar2021

Good morning: it’s currently 21��F under sunny skies and this is my first Sunday in ages without sending a newsletter. In the long run, I know that taking Macro monthly is the right move: more time for extras, more time to make exclusive things, less bombardment, less boredom for the reader.

When I started writing these daily things last week. I thought it might be withdrawal from the newsletter. Doesn’t look that way: having penned a week’s worth now, I genuinely enjoy these post-breakfast, pre-Work2 dispatches into the ether. (Are you there this morning, Micro? It’s me, Tyler. Hope you’ve solved your server/whatever issues.)

Wednesdays and Sundays now being side-project days, I’m working with comics this morning, trying something I’ve never done before. Terrified and loving it, David Bowie’s words ringing true…

���I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations. If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being. Go a little bit out of your depth and when you don’t feel your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.���

Sluggish Pixelmator on the little MacBook Air (Error) but it’s doing the job. Churn, little MacBook, churn.

SitRep, 06mar2021

Good morning: it’s currently 25��F under sunny skies and Micro.blog seems to be having problems. Posts are showing up on my Micro site itself, but not in the timeline nor are they cross-posting to Twitter. Probably best if I just post @help on this one, but since the delay of important Morkie brushing updates is on my mind this morning, it’s found a scrawl-home here. Little doubt, however, that a fix is already being crafted and deployed: such is the quality of the developer’s receptivity and response time.

In other news, WANDAVISION’s finale was an excellent conclusion to a remarkable series (right up there with the two ANT-MAN films as my favorite Marvel Cinematic offerings) and “The Joker’s Favor” episode of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES remains a favorite. Two more episodes to go on I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE �����a must-watch. Between WANDAVISION and I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, Kathryn Hahn is finally getting the attention she deserves. One of the best actors working today.

MARIO KART defeat awaits me this afternoon. For now, though, back to work.

SitRep, 05mar2021

Good morning: it’s currently 20��F under sunny skies and re/emergence0001 is in the vault; re/e0002 drops 17 March. Newsletter subscribers get early access next Friday, 12 March; you can sign up here if so inclined.

(Many thanks to all who dug re/e0001; we had a great time putting it together and look forward to sharing more soon.)

In other news: Reasonably sure that both my wife and I had covid back in late Feb-early March of last year (while my wife was definitely knocked on her ass by it, I was one of the largely asymptomatic types) ��� early adopters FTW. More convinced than ever that I’m one of the “long covid” types. Blood sugars been nuts ever since around then; have had to double the insulin dosage over the last year and haven’t felt fully myself in a long time. Verge article on long covid sufferers feeling better after vaccine gives me hope: maybe it’s just my immune system still struggling with lingering remnants of my theorized bout and the vaccine, whenever I get it ��� soon, hopefully ��� will help eliminate those remnants. But who knows. Maybe it’s just the way it is. I’ve begrudgingly accepted that T1D is a fight I won’t win. All I can do is put one foot in front of the other and move along.

And so it goes; the day awaits.

SitRep, 04mar2021

Good morning; it���s currently 33��F under cloudy skies and, as of today, I can get my covid-jab. Put in a call to the adjacent southern county since mine is, to put it likely, an organizational clusterfuck. We shall see.

Thinking this morning especially of something John Steinbeck wrote in his essential WORKING DAYS:

“Mustn’t think of its largeness but only of the little picture while I am working. Leave the large picture for planning time.” (18 June 1938���9:45).

Use the run and the non-writing times for the big picture, focus on the tiny details in the Forest-ed chunks. Repeat daily.

And so it goes; the day awaits.